


Another Song About a Boy

by HighlyOpinionatedNerd



Category: One Piece
Genre: Enjoy!, F/M, I know that sounds weird but it made sense at the time, Koala is a music student and Sabo is a basketball player, excuse my horrible summary writing skills please, from first meeting to first date in less than 3000 words, just two college freshman trying to get their lives together, part of the Grand Line University AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 07:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12836505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighlyOpinionatedNerd/pseuds/HighlyOpinionatedNerd
Summary: Freshman vocal major Koala has been struggling with the piece she's been assigned. She can't seem to make it sound the way she wants. Will she be able to find the inspiration she needs before the performance?





	Another Song About a Boy

It was late, and Koala was tired. How late? A quick check of her phone told her it was approaching midnight. She had been in this practice room far too long. How long? She didn’t remember, but probably somewhere around two and a half hours. Too long.

On the stand in front of her was a copy of the vocal part of Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade. It was a lovely piece, no doubt, but for some reason she was absolutely stuck.

Not on the technique. There was nothing particularly hard about this piece. There was a sustained high G at one point, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. What she was stuck on was the musicality of it, the elements that would make it worth listening to.

She’d listened to probably forty different recordings of it on Youtube. But imitating what she heard sounded fake, forced. 

“You have to understand the meaning behind the lyrics,” her professor said. “You have to make it sound natural, make it appeal to the audience.” 

Koala sighed. It was true, but it wasn’t advice. She didn’t know how to act on that. ‘Make it natural.’ She was stuck. Sitting here staring at the music wasn’t going to help her right now. Besides she had class in the morning.

Resigned, she packed up her music and headed home, wondering why she had ever thought majoring in music would be easy.

 

Koala had been warned by multiple people when she’d been first registering for classes not to take any 8 ams. Ok, fine, she’d said, I think I could handle it, but I won’t.

Which is how she came to find herself with a 9 am government class three days a week. And while it wasn’t 8 am, it was still too early. Far too early. Koala didn’t think she had ever regretted anything more than signing up for this class.

She sat near the front, at one of those long tables they put in classrooms with too many students to buy individual desks for. On her right side was a wall with a framed picture of some old man on it. Koala thought he was probably someone important, but she had never bothered to learn who. On her left sat a tall blond boy with a wicked-looking scar on his face. He’d never spoken to her. Apparently that’s just how it worked in college. You didn’t talk to anyone outside your major, especially not in core classes like this.

She really wished she hadn’t stayed out so late practicing last night. She hadn’t gotten enough sleep, and she was in no mood to listen to a lecture about government. Their professor, a grizzled, perpetually grumpy-looking man named Dragon, was pretty strict. Another reason Koala wished she’d taken a different section of the class.

“Uh, ‘scuse me,” said a voice, interrupting her musings. It was the boy who sat next to her; he was just sliding into his seat, a faint sheen of sweat visible on his brow. “Do you have the time?”

“Yeah,” Koala said, checking her phone, “it’s 8:54.”

“Really?” He let out a sigh of relief. “Oh man, I thought for sure I’d be late this morning. I was out late at the court last night, practicing, and I overslept...Ah, do you have a pencil I could borrow? I think I left mine at home.”

“Um, sure.” She leaned down and dug around in her bag, eventually pulling out a blue mechanical pencil and handing it to him. “Here.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” He started flipping through his notebook, looking for the page he’d left off on after the last lecture. “This professor is really intense, isn’t he? I mean, I’m learning a lot from him, but it doesn’t seem to be enough, since I didn’t really do too good on the last test.”

Koala chuckled a little in spite of herself. “‘Intense’ is a good word.”

“Hah, yeah it is, isn’t it? I mean don’t get me wrong, this is all fascinating stuff, but I don’t really know why I have to take this class. I’m supposed to start taking more classes for my major next semester, and I won’t have time to retake government, so I really have to pass…”

“I don’t know why I have to take it either. It has nothing to do with my degree plan.”

“What’s your major?”

“Music. Choral conducting, more specifically.”

“Oh, wow!” He looked impressed. “That’s really cool! I’m in engineering. I’ve never had any talent as far as music goes. I play basketball, but, you know, that’s still not as cool.”

“I don’t think it’s uncool.”

“Heh, thanks.”

It was at that moment that Dragon swept into the room, instantly stopping all conversation just with his presence. “Get out your books; today we have to get through all of the Bill of Rights today, and we don’t have any time to waste,” he barked, prompting Koala to hurriedly turn back to her own notes, not wanting to get left behind.

An hour of bland powerpoint slides and rapidly-delivered facts later, Dragon finally let them go, reminding them to start thinking about topics for their upcoming research papers.

“Here,” the boy next to Koala said, handing her back her pencil. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She took it and tossed it into her bag, then stood up, trying to remember whether or not the homework for her next class was due that day.

“Hey wait! Before you go, here, take these.” The blond boy held out two slips of paper to her, which Koala took quizzically.

“What’s this?”

“Free tickets to our game tonight.” He shrugged a little bashfully. “My coach told me to pass them out to my friends, but I don’t think many of the engineering guys would be very interested. You don’t have to come, if you don’t want to, of course. You’ve probably got your hands full.”

“I’ll think about it,” she assured him, tucking the tickets into her pocket. “Thanks.”

“Sure thing,” he said, giving her a smile.

 

“Nami, are you interested in going to the basketball game tonight?”

“Uh, not really.” Koala’s roommate looked up from the accounting homework on her laptop screen. “Why?”

“I’ve got two free tickets.”

“Oh, well, free is a different matter!” Nami grinned. “What, are you not interested in going?”

“I mean, not really. But one of the players gave me these tickets, and I would feel bad if no one used them. So I thought maybe you or one of your friends would want them.”

“Koala,” said Nami mock-sternly, “you should know better. Never, ever turn down a free gift from a cute boy.”

“I never said he was cute.”

“You don’t have to. Come on now, go put on a school shirt, we’re going to that game tonight!”

 

Koala had never been in their school’s basketball stadium. It was big, very big. And it was currently full of people, which meant it was also very loud.

“I still don’t understand the rules,” she said to Nami, practically shouting to make herself heard.

“Who cares? We’re winning!”

“Well, if you say so…”

The home team scored another basket, and the crowd around them went wild. Nami cheered too, waving her arms around. Koala clapped along, watching the players.

“So? Which one was the one who gave you the tickets?”

“That one.” Koala pointed. “Number thirteen.”

“Ooooh, wow. Girl, wow.”

“Oh, come on Nami, stop it. I don’t even know the guy.”

“Well, if I was you, I’d make it a point to get to know the guy!”

Koala stuck her tongue out at her roommate, then turned back to the game. The boy from her government class, whose name she still somehow did not know, had been playing a considerable amount of the game. Koala might not know much about basketball, but she was pretty sure that that meant something. If he wasn’t good, he would have been among the boys sitting on the bench waiting their turns, right?

He had more scars than she had first realized. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him without a hoodie on. But out there he wore nothing but his jersey and shorts, and she could see marks on his arm and leg too. Presumably all along his left side.

Whatever had caused those must have hurt, a _lot_. But he didn’t move like someone marked by pain like that. In fact he moved more fluidly and seemingly effortlessly than anyone else on that court. She wouldn’t have ever described basketball as a graceful sport, but there he was. It was hard to take her eyes off him, for some reason.

Between plays, he smiled and laughed with his teammates. But then the next play started, and he looked so serious, so focused, that it was kind of hypnotizing. He used his movements very effectively (or at least, Koala thought he did). He spun and jumped and ran, and though sweat was pouring off of him, he never lost that intensity throughout the whole game. And then between plays, he smiled again, as if he hadn’t just done something magical and entrancing.

In class, he had told Koala that he didn’t think playing basketball was very cool. But she thought he looked pretty gosh darn cool out there on that court. He looked….natural. He made it look natural.

 

“Hey, I wanted to thank you for the basketball tickets the other day.”

“Oh, did you end up going to the game?”

“Yes, I did. I thought it was great. We won, too, so...good job?”

“Haha, thanks! And thanks for coming to watch, I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Actually, um, I wanted to give you this.”

“A concert ticket? Oh, is this your concert?”

“Yeah, I’ll be performing next week. But if you’re busy, I’d totally understand...”

“No, no, I’ll definitely be there! Thanks, ah- Ok, this is gonna sound stupid, but I don’t think I ever learned your name.”

“Don’t feel bad, I don’t think we’ve ever been formally introduced. It’s Koala.”

“Nice to officially be introduced, Koala. I’m Sabo.”

“Likewise Sabo. I hope you’ll enjoy the concert.”

 

Koala stood backstage in her heels and a black dress with sequins on it. She was focusing on breathing evenly. She didn’t have severe performance anxiety, but it wasn’t like she didn’t get nervous.

Her piano accompanist leaned over to her and whispered, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do great. You sounded fantastic in rehearsal yesterday.”

“Thanks, Mr. Brook,” she whispered back, attempting to return the smile she was offered. She didn’t really know how to explain that she wasn’t nervous about the performance, but rather about who might be watching.

From the hall, the music stopped and the sounds of the audience clapping could be heard. Koala took one last long, deep breath and squared her shoulders. Whoever it was that had been singing came backstage with their accompanist (Koala truthfully hadn’t even been paying attention to who it was). The stage worker nodded to her, and she walked out onstage.

There was a pretty decent crowd in the hall, for a studio recital. Koala suspected that most of them were only there for the recital credit, but she didn’t really hold that against them. They clapped politely as she made her way to center stage and bowed.

Brook sat at the piano and, after making eye contact with her to make sure she was ready, he started playing, beginning the oscillating, circular ostinato that ran throughout the piece.

Koala began to sing, letting the words free to resonate around the hall. It felt strange, after practicing for so long in cramped, tiny practice rooms to be so open and exposed like this. She was performing from memory, so she didn’t even have a music stand to hide behind.

But she didn’t need to hide, she reminded herself. She knew what she was doing. She concentrated on the image of Sabo playing in her mind, remembering how he had moved so gracefully, and let that memory guide her. She tried to sing what he had made her feel, watching him.

And apparently, some of it must have gotten through to the audience, because when she finished they did more than clap politely, they applauded her enthusiastically. Someone near the back whooped loudly- probably Nami, Koala thought as she bowed again before hurrying offstage.

She thanked Brook and left the backstage area, heading for her locker, doing more deep breathing. That had gone well, she thought. Better than she had expected, honestly. Silently she vowed never to tell anyone, especially not her professor, that inspiration had finally come to her in the form of a sweaty boy running around with an orange ball. She’d never live down the humiliation.

She had her head stuck into her locker, reaching for the tennis shoes she had left in there earlier when she heard someone calling her name.

“Koala, is that you?”

“Sabo!” She nearly banged her head trying to straighten up. “Uh, hi! Hi, how are you?”

“Oh, I’m good. How are you? Were you nervous out there?”

“A little,” she admitted, shrugging. “You saw the performance, then?”

“Yeah, I did! Koala, it was _great._ That was so, so cool. I mean, wow, I never expected you to be able to fill a whole room with your voice like that!”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling. Probably also blushing a little bit. “I’m so glad you liked it.”

“What language was that? It wasn’t English, was it?”

“Ah, no, German.”

“Ohhh. Cool! Do you know the translation? There wasn’t one in the program.”

“Yeah, I know the translation.”

“What’s it about?”

“It’s, um. It’s a love song.” She was definitely blushing now, dang it.

Sabo laughed, and amazingly enough, he was blushing just a little bit too. Not much, but she could see it.

“Well, you sang it really, really good. Hey, uh, I was wondering….do you wanna, I don’t know, go get a coffee or something? I mean, performing like that seems like a big deal, and I thought you might like to.”

“I...I’d like that very much,” Koala said, her heart beating very, very fast. “Ah, just give me a second to change my shoes.”

“Oh, sure! I mean, I’d have to wait for you regardless, because I don’t think I know how to get out of this building from here.”

She laughed at that. “Don’t worry, I can help with that.”

She quickly pulled on her tennis shoes and stuffed her heels into her locker in their place, then pointed down the hallway that would lead them to the nearest exit. “This way.”

“Ok.” Sabo fell into step beside her. “So, coffee sound good?”

“Coffee sounds amazing. I’m running on like five hours of sleep right now.”

“Haha, wow! Well, lucky for you, I know how all the secret menu items at Starbucks.”

“All of them, huh?”

“Oh yeah, all of them. If you want to find out what they all are, I guess you’ll just have to keep hanging out with me.” He was not blushing nearly enough for having just said something that embarrassing. Not nearly enough at all.

Not one to be outdone, Koala smiled at him. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

He smiled back. His smile made her want to sing, just to tell everyone about it. She could sing about a smile like that forever.

“That almost sounded like you were flirting with me, Koala.”

“Wha- no no, if anyone was flirting, it was definitely you. You started it!”

“Does that mean you want me to stop?”

“...No.”

“Alright then, I won’t. Prepare to get yourself flirted with, young lady.”

She laughed, and he joined in. They walked down the sidewalk together, just laughing.

Koala was pretty sure she wouldn’t be lacking in inspiration in her music for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a link to the piece referenced in this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9ClvNQEc28 . The piano part is meant to imitate a spinning wheel, and the vocalist is pining after her boyfriend while she spins. Full translation over here: https://www.thoughtco.com/gretchen-am-spinnrade-text-and-translation-724404
> 
> I'm not a vocalist, but musicality and authenticity is something I struggle a lot with in my own playing, so this was easy to write about! I don't know anything about basketball though, so that's all basically made up. Thank you for reading!


End file.
